On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Pentagon explained the president’s rationale to end some military contributions to Ukraine in the Russian war.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell opened the media briefing with a statement about the decision to stop some military aid to Ukraine as part of a “capability review” that sought to maintain U.S. military readiness.
‘The president’s strategic outset with respect to Ukraine and Russia has been one of peace. He campaigned on this.’
“Let it be known that our military has everything that it needs to conduct any mission anywhere, anytime, all around the world. We have the most lethal fighting force in the world,” said Parnell at the end of his statement about Ukraine.
When Parnell went to accept questions from reporters, Blaze News politics reporter Rebeka Zeljko went first.
“With respect to Ukrainian aid, the United States announced that they’re going to be withholding certain aspects of aid,” said Zeljko. “Ukraine responded by saying that this is going to embolden Russia. What is the department’s response to that argument?”
“Well, the president’s strategic outset with respect to Ukraine and Russia has been one of peace. He campaigned on this. When he was asked on a town hall with CNN about that war, he said he wanted to just stop people from dying,” Parnell responded.
“And so peace has been the president’s highest aspiration, and we here at the department support those goals and those missions,” he added. “But it’s important to remember that the stuff that I mentioned in my topper, what we’ve done here at the Department of Defense is create a framework to analyze what munitions we’re sending where, to help the president and the secretary of defense make decisions.”
“And so ultimately our job here at the Department of Defense is to pursue the president’s America First agenda and make sure that we keep peace through strength throughout the world,” Parnell concluded.
The U.S. announced a pause in munitions and air defense missiles being sent to Ukraine over concerns that the U.S. stockpile had grown low. The announcement was praised by Russia, but a Ukrainian official warned that the decision would lead to more “war and terror” from the “aggressor,” rather than peace.
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